Electric Thoughts in a Digital Era

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  • The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 20 July 2012

    The week that has passed contained previews of the future. Facebook and Walmart are to strengthen their relationship and Amazon will be starting to face user revolt over sales tax collection. Amazon will be doing the right thing with regards to taxing but how it affects their bottom-line is another story. It is pretty clear that Walmart feels the need to partner with digital companies to try and shorten the distance between themselves and Amazon.

    There is one post that I read this week that I have gone back to a couple of times. Fred Wilson has been writing about mobile a lot more recently and his post over Mobile commerce highlighted one of the newer channels that commerce needs to be thinking about. Mobile is here to stay, the execution is what will determine who wins and become successful. It provides more touch points for retailers to connect with their users.

    Obviously the biggest story of the week has to be Marissa Mayer being named the new CEO of Yahoo!. Personally, I want Yahoo! to become more relevant because dear citizens of the Internet we have one search engine making all the rules. Commerce is something severally lacking from Yahoo’s stable (Yahoo! Shopping is powered by PriceGrabber) and maybe something that Mayer needs to have a look at. Merchants are going to look for an alternative as soon as paid Google Shopping is rolled out. I sense acquisitions in a variety of areas.
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  • The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 12 July 2012

    Phew, what a week. It feels like the headlines were dominated by one ecommerce company this past week. The problem is that this company is a Rubik’s cube and plays in a variety of verticals. Amazon.com is what I am talking about. The Financial Times had a great amount of coverage this week (all behind a paywall) but the truth is that no-one except the Emperor Bezos knows what the kingdom has in store for the ecommerce market.

    Let me be blunt, if you don’t keep an eye on Amazon then you are ignorant. I am tempted to say you that you are destined for something like a Black Swan (which is far from something of beauty). I am expecting an Amazon smartphone as Bezos wants to ensure that he owns the customer journey.. whether it happens is another story. I have a confession to make as well. Yes, facebook commerce is on my mind and I think Thefind.com through their Glimpse product is on to something…

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  • Startup aims to ease the pain of getting a driver’s licence

    Entrepreneurship is something that is close to my heart. Having been fortunate enough to meet a few great entrepreneurs, I believe that entrepreneurship is what will solve some of the biggest challenges we face today.

    Startups in technology is a badge which some wear like a designers item, as being part of a club and others do the things in the background. Those in the second group are the ones to keep an eye on. For the record, startups as done by people like Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX) inspire me. They solve real problems through technology and innovation. Continue reading

  • What is in a name?

    I have been thinking, and it seems that I have missed a detail. Not my style or how I operate daily. I made a decision a year ago and assumed that I would one day explain it. The time has come for a brief description of my domain name.

    So the obvious one would be hendriklaubscher.com right? I thought about it and in general the personal domain thing is a bit too in your face for me. So after some research I decided on haimrich.com. It is the founding definition of my name, Hendrik. Just to be clear, it is not “ha im rich” which has been mentioned in various discussions. I hope this settles the naming of this domain.

    Think about it, naming of companies are difficult. Get it right and your customers can remember your name. Get it wrong and you are just another ecommerce website.

  • The 10 e-commerce stories for the week ending 06 July 2012

    The first week of July is in the record books. This year has steadily been gaining speed and everyone has started with Q4 planning. It is pretty clear to me that in South Africa ecommerce is starting to become more acceptable. I know that sounds weird but I still feel retailers see ecommerce as a challenge and not a complimentary channel to make further revenue. It made me smile reading that Mr Price and CNA will be adding more attention to their ecommerce offerings. Are we at a tipping point for ecommerce in South Africa?

    I was overseas last week and when walking around in Turkey the retailers in the shopping malls had URLs and social media stickers on the windows of their shops. Bricks and Mortar is definitely in certain markets adding ecommerce to their touch points for customers. I hope you missed the weekly posts last week, the silence wont be happening again. So, without anymore babbling, here are the stories that got me to click and read more.

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